Since hitherto in only two paintings of Guido Reni's "Hercules"-cycle (Paris, Louvre) definite references to the antique could be detected, the element of the classical tradi­tion which connects these four paintings (apart from their common subject of the hero Hercules) has not been suffi­ciently appreciated.

Indeed,a deeper consideration reveals that Reni already for the representation of the "Hercules on the pyre", the first of these pictures (executed from 1617 on for the duke of Mantova), had recourse to the antique statue of a faun from where he drew inspiration for the poise of his protagonist. Since such an orientation on the model of antique sculpture can also be observed in the painting of the "Herkules and the Hydra", it appears to be obvious that the artist tried to refine the execution of the honourable and important commission for the four paintings by profiting from (as Malvasia called it) the "beneficio delle statue".